Bottom Line:
The Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act (“PRENDA”) prohibits sex-selection and race-selection abortion, prosecuting the abortion providers who encourage or coerce a woman to obtain either.
Background:
-
In 2008, the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences showed that sex-selection abortions were prevalent in certain sections of the U.S. population particularly in segments with ethnic ties to countries with heavy sex-selection abortion practices.
-
The victims of sex-selection abortion are overwhelmingly female, based on the traditional “son preference.” Sex-selection abortion is leading to female infanticide in the United States.
-
A poll by Zogby International in March 2006 showed that 86 percent of Americans believed that sex-selection abortion should be illegal.
-
Sex-selection abortions are not prohibited by U.S. Federal law or by laws in 47 states.
-
Minority babies are aborted at five times the rate of white babies.
-
Race-selection abortion supports and reinforces racial discrimination in the U.S.
-
Only Arizona has prohibited race-selection abortions.
Talking Points:
-
Abortion providers are prohibited from knowingly performing abortions that are sex-selective or race-based.
-
This legislation punishes the abortion provider, not the woman seeking the abortion.
-
This legislation allows the mother, father, or maternal grandparents of the baby (if the mother is a minor) to seek civil action against an abortion provider who performed the sex-selective or race-based abortion.